What
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While temperament and athletic ability are defining aspects of a breed, color also plays an important role. If you want a registered Black Kladruby, for example, you probably aren’t hoping he’ll be chestnut. And if you want a registered golden Kinsky, you probably aren’t expecting a black foal.

The same goes for spotting—large or small. While there’ve been periods when plain-colored Paints and Appaloosas have been popular, most buyers and breeders hope for bright splashes of colors on those “flashy” breeds.

But what if the colors aren’t what we expected? Does the “wrong” color for a breed mean the breeder has pulled a fast one on an unsuspecting buyer or mare owner? Despite a few lawsuits in which buyers have sued breeders for the wrong color, what’s probably happening in these cases is that a long-nestled color allele (variation of a gene) has decided to pop up in an individual. And, in fact, all the scenarios described above could happen—or already have.

How those scenarios occur, researchers say, is a fascinating story of genetics—partially explained in a new study by an international group of scientists

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